Events give Stockton a sporting chance

Last year, about 140 cyclists circled downtown Stockton before heading over Patterson Pass Road near Tracy and then on to San Jose as part of the Amgen Tour of California.

Donald W. Blount

Last year, about 140 cyclists circled downtown Stockton before heading over Patterson Pass Road near Tracy and then on to San Jose as part of the Amgen Tour of California.

Stockton served as the starting point for the third stage of the seven-stage, 650-mile race.

The event was seen as a success by race officials and the city, which gained international exposure, since the stage was televised live on the Versus network and was followed on the Internet.

Race organizers said how well the Stockton portion of the race went and spoke of how they would like the city to be part of the recurring mix of cities that the tour visits as it wends its way through California.

Yet Stockton wasn't picked for the 2008 race.

That made some sense. Other cities could get a turn. But last week, officials announced the route for the 2009 race. And once again Stockton was excluded.

"I don't know whether to be upset or not," said Don Miller, director of the Stockton Sports Commission. "That's the nature of the game when you bid on events. You win some, you lose some."

What the city has lost thus far is the work, time and energy that goes into preparing such a proposal. After all, aren't events such as the Amgen Tour exactly what Roger Brooks, the Seattle-based consultant hired by Stockton, recommended to boost the city's image?

That route for the 2009 race takes riders from San Jose into the Central Valley. Imagine riders breaking a tape in front of the Weber Point Events Center as crowds cheered.

Instead, Modesto was selected as the finishing point for the fourth stage.

To Miller, that makes some sense, since Modesto has the minimum 600 hotel rooms needed to host riders and their teams. Additional rooms are needed to host family, friends and fans.

Stockton has about 2,700 hotel rooms ranging from the small, independent motels along the highways to the branded ones, according to the Stockton Conference and Visitors Bureau.

But it stung to see Clovis and Paso Robles on the itinerary, Miller said.

Part of the requirement to be a finishing city is to have the minimum hotel rooms in that city.

"If I have a beef, that's my beef with the tour," Miller said.

Clovis is just nine miles from Fresno. Paso Robles is about 28 miles from San Luis Obispo. I would guess that Fresno and San Luis Obispo have plenty of hotel rooms to meet the race's needs.

Miller said he was mollified a bit by an e-mail sent to him by race organizers. It said in part that they were not able to make Stockton work for 2009 but hoped to make it work for 2010 and in the years to come. It also said the tour cannot go to every city and needs to change the route every year.

The Tour de France route changes annually as well and that's the biggest bike race of the year. Although that doesn't mean it's fair to compare Weber Point in Stockton to the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

But despite being passed over this year, the Sports Commission will continue to try to get Stockton back on the Tour of California route.